Muslim Call to Prayer Stirs a Midwest Town

In the last two decades, however, new immigrants have flooded Hamtramck. They're drawn by the location -- five miles from downtown Detroit -- and by the inexpensive real estate. The houses are weathered and packed so close together, there's barely room for a few inches of grass between neighbors. But they're solidly built with inviting porches, and they're often priced at less than $75,000.

By the 2000 census, just 23% of residents indicated Polish ancestry. Nearly 10% said they were of Arabic origin. Another 10% are Asian -- half of them Indian -- and 15% are black.

Many in the city have worked hard to accommodate and integrate the new arrivals. King Video now stocks rows of DVDs in Albanian, Arabic, Polish and other languages. The public library carries the children's fable "The Giant Turnip" in Bengali, Polish, Arabic and Serbo-Croatian. A poster for subsidized preschool is translated into nine languages.

At the Envy Me hair salon, barber Tyrone Hanes says the Bangladeshi Muslims who worship next door are "pretty cool people" -- and loyal customers too. Ali Qayed, a Yemeni immigrant who runs the Get & Go convenience store, jokes easily with shoppers of all ethnicities. And while Lyman Woodard, 28, doesn't have many Muslim clients in his tattoo parlor, he says he feels at home amid the new arrivals, even trying the ethnic restaurants springing up next to the sari shops and halal meat markets.

"We've proven that we know how to live together," Council President Karen Majewski said.

Hamtramck has even adopted a more inclusive motto: "A touch of the world in America."

But the uproar over the call to prayer has exposed resentment behind the harmony.

At Genie's Wienies -- a hot dog stand that boasts in faded paint that it's been "owned and operated by Polish Americans since 1950" -- Michelle Cieslak gave voice to a common theme.

"This is going to push out what's left of the Polish community in Hamtramck," said Cieslak, 40, who runs the family-owned business.

Cieslak and many of her neighbors say they can't understand why Muslims have been slow to adapt to American customs -- though, in fact, their own ancestors still hold tightly to Old World traditions.

Even today, some elderly residents speak only Polish or Ukrainian as they browse Hamtramck's markets for smoked sausage and potato dumplings. There's a Polish Legion of American Veterans downtown and a mural of Krakow in Pope's Park; several buildings are painted with red-and-white Polish flags.